Top Items:
The Big Trunk / Power Line:
Columbia's disgrace — There is a suicidal mania that grips elite opinion in the United States. It is exemplified nowhere better than in our elite educational institutions. Today, for example, Columbia University has issued the following statement to its alumni:
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ABC 7 Eyewitness News:
Iranian president intends to visit Ground Zero — Iranian mission says he'll go despite NYPD rejection — Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad requested to visit Ground Zero during an upcoming trip to New York. That request was rejected Wednesday. But a source tells Eyewitness News that the decision may not stop him.
Wall Street Journal:
Donors Stir 'Bundling' Questions — Clinton Campaign Vows — To Check Contributions — Solicited by Supporter — BRISTOW, Va. — When Hillary Rodham Clinton held an intimate fund-raising event at her Washington home in late March, Pamela Layton donated $4,600, the maximum allowed by law …
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Ianthe Jeanne Dugan / Wall Street Journal:
Norman Hsu Faces Charges Tied to Democratic Fund-Raising — Federal officials are expected to bring a criminal case against Norman Hsu today, charging the Democratic super-donor with operating a $60 million pyramid scheme and violating campaign-finance laws.
Discussion:
The Caucus
Associated Press:
New al-Qaida video released — CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri said the United States was being defeated in Afghanistan, Iraq and other fronts in a new video released Thursday, the latest in a series put out by the terror network. — The video came days …
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Washington Post:
Longer Leaves for Troops Blocked — Senate Republicans yesterday rejected a bipartisan proposal to lengthen the home leaves of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, derailing a measure that war opponents viewed as one of the best chances to force President Bush to accelerate a redeployment of forces.
Discussion:
INTEL DUMP, Reuters, The Carpetbagger Report, Bark Bark Woof Woof, QandO, MSNBC, The Newshoggers, The Anonymous Liberal and Hoffmania!
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Ralph Z. Hallow / Washington Times:
McCain seen struggling to raise money — Sen. John McCain's recent "no-surrender-in-Iraq" campaign tour generated enough press buzz for a slight bounce in the polls, but donations continue to head south, along with his prospects of becoming president, some Republicans say.
Discussion:
TPM Election Central
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Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Obama's Return to Message of 'Change' — Over the next few months, there will be hundreds of television ads run by the candidates for president and scores of interest groups hoping to influence the primary and caucus electorate. — But no ad may be more important — both literally and figuratively …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
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Lurxst / Daily Kos:
I Don't Support the Troops..oops, there, I said it — This has been digging at me for, oh, about 4 years now. I have been hesitant to express this thought, in comments sections and in discussion with other people about the Iraq quagmire for fear of, I don't know, being called mean. Or, un-American.
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Newsweek:
Terror Watch: A Secret Lobbying Campaign — The secret lobbying campaign your phone company doesn't want you to know about — The nation's biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve …
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard / Telegraph:
Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright — Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.
Ramesh Ponnuru / New York Times:
Taxing the Hand That Feeds Us — REPUBLICAN presidential candidates can't get elected without owning the tax issue. So far, the current crop is giving it away. — A huge reason for Ronald Reagan's popularity was his cutting of all income-tax rates and ending of "bracket creep," …
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Ben Smith / The Politico:
Darth Cheney — "You can always tell when the Republicans are getting restless, because the Vice President's motorcade pulls into the Capitol, and Darth Vader emerges," Clinton said just now at Town Hall in New York. — "I'm not invited to their meetings and I don't know what he says or does," she said.
Digby / Hullabaloo:
The Pied Piper of Crawford — The bizarre and dishonest National Intelligence chief, Michael McConnell, is back up on the hill pushing for a permanent expansion of the warrantless wiretapping law he browbeat the congress into passing last August. Only this time making sure that his former …
Discussion:
The Raw Story, Salon, Middle Earth Journal, Suburban Guerrilla, Rising Hegemon, The Impolitic and New York Times
Rep. Phil Hare / The Politico:
Free trade must be fair trade — In baseball, if the pitcher on one team must throw off of a mound 90 feet from home plate while his opponent is allowed to stand 30 feet closer, that is an uneven playing field. — And if the umpire refuses to enforce any of the rules of the game, you have an all-around flawed process.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Spencer Ackerman / TPMmuckraker:
CBO: Bush Plans For Iraq Will Cost Trillions — A new Congressional study finds that President Bush's plans for the U.S. in Iraq over the next several decades will reach the trillions of dollars, on top of the approximately $567 billion the war has already cost.
Discussion:
Danger Room
Steve Fainaru / Washington Post:
Where Military Rules Don't Apply — Blackwater's Security Force in Iraq Given Wide Latitude by State Dept. — Blackwater USA, the private security company involved in a Baghdad shootout last weekend, operated under State Department authority that exempted the company from U.S. military …
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Newt's Vision Thing — In the years since I first met him in 1974, I have learned that it's wise to take Newt Gingrich seriously. He has many character flaws, and his language is often exaggerated and imprudent. But if there is any politician of the current generation who has earned the label …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog, Rising Hegemon, Middle Earth Journal, Daily Kos and The Newshoggers